Tea farmers from Masaba region in Nyamira County have called upon Nyankoba tea factory management to purchase more transportation vehicles to reduce the time they take to transport the commodity.
Speaking on Thursday at a funeral ceremony in the area, farmer after farmer accused the management of failing to tackle the problem despite raising the issues for over three months.
According to them, they were forced to stay in their respective buying centers till late in night due to delay occasioned by using of only three vehicles to serve more than 28 buying centers from the region.
“On behalf of many of us I want to challenge the management to buy more tea transportation vehicles. We have an acute shortage and the predicament is affecting negatively our only cash crop activity in the region. We can no longer wait for hours to be served,” said Alias Amenya.
They threatened to go on strike if the issue is not addressed in two weeks’ time besides threatening to vote out Board Directors who are directly voted by them.
“They have to solve the issue in two weeks’ time or we go on strike. Besides, our five Directors risk their jobs because they are not representing us properly,” added Kelvin Mbaka.
Nyankoba region Director Enock Mong’are vowed to support the farmers and accused the management of failing to implement some of the policies regarding transportation that were passed last year.
“We dealt with the issue and it’s only that the management has failed to implement it. I am with so in whatever you are planning to do,” he said.